The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-15
A STORY OF TWO ARTISTS.
Something About Men Who Have Had
Queer Adventures.


NEW YORK, May 14.-Paul Frenzeny, the
artist who went with the Wild West show
to England, has had many queer adventures
in his time. He is the son of a Hungarian
nobleman and was educated in France at
the Polytechnique. he fought in Algiers as
a lieutenant of mounted battery and was
with the French army in the Italian cam
paign. He was a first lieutenant under
Macmillan in Mexico, and when that I'M
fortunate invader and his schemes of con-
quest disappeared in a puff Of powder
smoke, Frenzeny came to New York and
studied drawing under John N. Hyde.
While he was studying in Hyde's studio he
inherited $4,000 He left the studio and
proceeded to get rid of his money in various
expeditions ways. First he went to Cali
fornia and bought ranch. Hemanaged to
float away good part of his inheritance in
highly ingenious ir1'igating ditch.
Then he formed an art partnership with
Jules Tavernier and travelled through Cali
fornia and other parts of the West, making
drawings for the illustrated papers. The
name of Frenzeny and Tavernler were at
one time familiar to the readers of the illus
I trated weeklies, being at the bottom of
many spirited pictures of wild scenes on the
frontier. After separating from Tavernier,
Frenzeny came East and sunk the remainder
of his money in a New. Jersey swamp,
which he mistook for farm.
Again he applied himself to art and some
of its Bohemian accomplishments, and for
the last few years he bucked against hard
luck. When Nate Salisbury offered him
salary to travel with the Wild West circus
as the Cowboy Artist" the proposition APP
pealed to mis- love of adventure and his
necessities. He put on a sombrero, tucked
his trousers into his bootlegs, polished up
| his rusty frontier vocabulary and six
| shooter, and climbed aboard the steamship
along with the buffaloes, the big Injuns and
| the bronchos Paul will paint the prairie
| fires, illustrate heartrending massacres and
hairbreadth escapes on canvases as big as
houses and do cartoon sketching in the
show to astonish the cockneys and corral
| their guineas.
Tavernier was even more of Bohemian
| than FrenZeny. He settled in San Fran
cisco, and for many years painted pictures in
his studio and kept the door barred against
heartless creditors. Tavernier was some
thing of genius in art. His pictures were
strong and he sold them for high prices
Although he made much money he was al
ways in debt and perpetually on the ragged
edge of ruin. When he sold picture he in
vited all the good fellows to dine with him
at the Poodle Dog and drowned them in
champagne. For week his studio was the
scene of revelry. The price Of the picture
disappeared like fog in tho sunshine, and
then he remembered his debts and tore his
hair. He appealed to his friends. He was
/ ruined. Els creditors would seize his studio.
He was in despair, and If he could not get
| $500 before night he would commit suicide
The impulsive, irrational Frenchman
meant it, and his friends gave him the
money. He called it a loan and imagined
that it was, but they knew it was a gift
| With money in his pocket his spirits re-
turned, the world looked bright and the
! creditors were hull down on the horizon.
Another champagne supper, to which the
lender was invited with impressive and
ELUSIVE gratitude, was the result Then more
work, another sale, the same old story, and
weary dance FOR the creditors.
AT last the friends became fewer Some
died. some left California, some lost patience
and some ceased to believe in the artists
theatrical despair. But the despair was
genuine One day not long ago Jules Tav-
ernier was found hanging; dead, in the stu
dio that he had barred against his bette noir,
the Unsuitable creditor WAN LEE